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Beverly
Wilson Palmer Receives NEH Grant for Edition of Florence
Kelley Letters
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Beverly Wilson Palmer, a research associate at Pomona
College, and Kathryn Kish Sklar, a professor of history at
SUNY Binghamton, received a $100,000 grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities to collect and edit the letters
of Progressive activist Florence Kelley.
 Florence Kelley (1859-1932) was instrumental in efforts to
enact laws regulating minimum wage and working conditions
for women and children by founding the National Consumer’s
League in 1899. As head of the League from its founding in
1899 until her death in 1932, Kelley led campaigns that
reshaped the conditions under which goods were produced in
the United States. Among her accomplishments were the Pure
Food and Drug Act of 1906 and laws providing for an
eight-hour work day. She was a member of the Intercollegiate
Socialist Society, along with important figures such as Jack
London and Upton Sinclair. A strong activist for women’s
suffrage and African American civil rights, Kelley was a key
figure in the establishment of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
"The publication of selected Florence Kelley letters will
engage readers in Kelley’;s life and work with greater
immediacy than her biographical interpretations will allow,"
says Palmer. "Rather than viewing her struggles from afar,
published letters will carry readers onto the battlegrounds
of the struggles she waged. By giving readers a first-hand
understanding of the changes that Kelley wrought in American
life, her letters will help readers understand how much of
what they take for granted in their own world was created by
Kelley and her allies."
The pair pull together approximately 300 letters drawn from
an extant pool of 2,200. The volume’s focus will be on
Kelley’s leadership in the realm of social legislation and
highlight other important areas of her life, including her
family’s tradition of social reform and leadership, and her
own responsibilities as a mother and reformer.
Palmer has experience as the editor of collections of
letters, publishing The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens
in two volumes (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997 and
1998), The Selected Letters of Charles Sumner (Northeastern
University Press, 1997), The Selected Letters of Lucretia
Coffin Mott (University of Illinois Press, 2002), and A
Woman’s Wit & Whimsy: The 1833 Diary of Anna Cabot Lowell
Quincy (Northeastern University Press, 2003). This is her
first collaboration with Sklar, who is the co-director of
the Center for Historical Study of Women and Gender, and
co-director of the Center for the Teaching of American
History at SUNY Binghamton.
Pomona College is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts
institutions, offering a comprehensive program in the arts,
humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Its
hallmarks include small classes, close relationships between
students and faculty, and a range of opportunities for
student research. |
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